November is my third month in my first Stalogy (A5 sized, 365 Stalogy, red) – and November is my final month in this planner because once I have all my spreads and everything done in it there are only about six pages leftover.
In October, I did not include a monthly spread because in September I had barely used the one I created…by mid-October I felt I needed to have that monthly in my book where I can find it when I need it.
In September, I had very few tabs. By October, I was using more tabs because I started to include different things that I wanted to keep up with regularly. November, I am using a lot of tabs again and I am loving it.
I keep changing things up, adding, shifting, changing, finding what I need, finding what I like, finding what works and what doesn’t. That is one reason I absolutely love this format. It’s so open and mutable and available to augmentation at my whim. I love that.
So, excuse the cruddy pictures. It was night when I took them—and my son had to help too.
Now, I did mess up a few things, forgot to leave space for things, yada yada…but I made notes and will be taking that information into December.
I have a farewell page to October, done in collage. I have a welcome November page done in collage. I didn’t leave enough room…so next month it will be more of a spread, less of a single hasty page.
I have a November monthly spread. Now, what I do is pretty minimal. For this month, when I was planning out my ‘extra pages’ in the beginning of the month, I used a regular ol’ maroon marker to draw a line vertically down the outside edge of all the pages/spreads—it really doesn’t mean anything—doesn’t really add anything—and I probably will not do it again—but at the time I did it, it felt like the right thing to do to help me stay on track and remember everything I wanted to put into this month.
Included on the monthly spread pages is a section for my ‘focus of the month’, my ‘word of the month’, and my ‘Tarot card of the month’, as well as a little spot to note any monthly-long challenges or events. In this month, it’s NaNoWriMo and NaKniSweMo.
For the next page, I have my ‘quote of the month’. This month my quote is from Albert Camus, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” No, I am not practicing calligraphy or any sort of pretty lettering. It’s just my own natural handwriting. I usually do it in cursive, but I have no set way I do anything. At least not yet.
The next page is my ‘Days To Remember’ page. Yes, every event here is written on my monthly spread…and on my weekly spreads where they belong, and on my dailies where they belong…so I don’t forget…because I fight fugue every day for a number of reasons. So holidays, special days that need to be remembered, lunar cycle, appointments, and yes, Pokemon Go events.
Last month was the first time I used a ‘one word per day’ spread and I loved it. So I included it again in this month. For me, this is a fun way to keep a running tally of my days, one word at a time.
The next page is a list of ‘self-care ideas’. Usually I look for things on Pinterest to use to populate lists of this nature…but this list came directly from the Passion Planner blog—and to them I am deeply grateful.
The next two pages are dedicated to my ‘daily Tarot card pulls’ which I do at the beginning of the month – or in the case of October, I did on the last/Blue Full Moon on October 31. I am trying to get in the habit of pulling a Tarot card every single day, but I haven’t been able to do anything consistently yet. The deck that I am currently using for my Tarot work, in case you want to know, is the Spiritsong Tarot by Paulina Cassidy.
After that, I have four pages set aside for recording gratitude. In September I only had two pages set aside to do gratitude. I was thinking I would record one thing per day. As I sat there thinking about things to write that first month, I found out I had so much more to write down. Since October I have been using four pages. I almost tipped in another 2-page card to add more last month. I decided against it because there were only a few days left to the month. I am already nearly done with the first two pages of this month’s gratitude…so this month an extra tip-in may be necessary. It helps me slow down and not take so much for granted—I can appreciate that in and of itself.
Now, I have two pages set up for my schoolwork on one page and then one for my youngest’s schoolwork—or at least where we want to focus our attention for the month. That helps more than planning things out step-by-step with him. A great deal depends upon his attention.
This month I have a page for daily meal plan ideas—because planning a meal for every day isn’t a successful thing for us because sometimes I don’t feel well enough to eat certain things. Sometimes we go out and eat out without planning to do so. Instead, I keep a running list of meals to make, or things I want to make for the month. This month I also have a page dedicated to planning our Thanksgiving meal.
My next pages are my habit trackers. There are actually three pages here. I had to do a tip-in so I could track everything I wanted to track. In October I used the everything in a line method…habits across the top of the page vertically and the days/dates down the side of the page vertically…that was too much for me. I couldn’t always figure out where the marks should go … so this month I hand-drew every single little calendar to track twenty-two different habits. Yes, I had added more since last month…and I can already see that for December I will be adding a couple more. I also mood tracker here—that’s a bit different than a little calendar. For that I just have the number of the days listed and I use a symbol to track my mood for the day. Low maintenance.
The next two pages are dedicated to finding more to explore (for homeschool) about various holidays during the month, crafts, books, crafts and so forth. It’s a work in progress—but it helps.
I have four pages set aside for affirmations—I haven’t used it at all actually. I may need to let this one go. Usually I take a smaller tip-in card and write an affirmation on it and tip that into the two pages I have set aside for that day, every day. Well, every day that I feel well enough to do it.
The next two-day spread is broken up not ‘business to do’ and then ‘house to do’. This is where I break down goals into the most basic tiny little steps that I can take in order to accomplish my goals. This sort of spread makes my daily MIT (most important things) list so much easier to achieve now that I do this.
Now, I so wish I could remember where I saw this so I could credit the person I stole this idea from. Basically, I was falling down the wormhole of YouTube planner videos and one video showed this woman creating a ‘journal prompt’ spread or at least area in her planner…and I loved that idea. In October, I started to keep a page full of journal prompts and a page full of writing prompts. For each page, I scour Pinterest for both types of prompts. Now, if I lack ideas as to what to write about…I have a built-in buffer already in my planner. It’s terrific.
After that, I have a page for my ‘core desired feelings’ for the month…and the next page is for my ‘intentions for the month’. Any time I forget my why or my what—these two pages are helpful to keep me on track.
New for this month is a four-page spread of ‘every day magic’ ideas. My youngest is very into Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and after all the Halloween movies and stories we were involved with last month. He wants to learn more about magic and about witches. So I am trying to do my best to teach him gentle things. Not to mention, I have been looking for ways to reconnect with things that I have allowed to fall by the wayside due to other people’s ridicule and derision. I am by nature more of a hearth witch anyway, so it works out. Except when he wants me to be Harry Potter and zap something. I have four pages of random ideas pulled from Pinterest (thank you, Pinterest and community) – and although it’s not as if we follow the list to the letter, do this than that then that…it’s a nice thing to be able to open my planner, scan the pages and see something that piques my interest enough to try. It’s a help.
Now, I should have left blank pages here – something to collage or whatever later – to delineate the new week…but I forgot. I made my first weekly spread—I kinda like this new weekly spread thing. It’s my first time using it. I think I shall continue using these.
For my dailies, I have two pages set aside for each day. That’s what I need. That’s what I use. That’s what works for me. For holidays, Full Moons, and New Moons, I throw in a two-page spread after that day’s daily spread. I started this last month. It feels so good to me to do this. I don’t know what I originally intended to do with those pages, but I have collaged on them since October and that is what I do now.
At the end of every week I set aside two pages for weekly reflections…and then another two pages to set up my mind for the coming week. On that second two-page spread I have a weekly quote, a weekly focus, a word for the week, and a weekly Tarot card—this is to help me keep my momentum going from the beginning of the month, so I don’t forget and/or give up. This is the first month I have done the weekly quote/focus/word/Tarot card. I like doing this quite a bit.
At the end of the month, I have a two-page spread for monthly reflections. Last month, I started to write myself notes for the next month so I would remember different things. This is where I started to keep track last month of different things, I wanted to start tracking this month. I have a list of what my daughter wants for Christmas. Random things.
I also have two pages set aside in this journal for a good-bye November spread. I have no idea what I am going to do there, but we’ll see.
And that is what I call my hybrid-bujo set-up for this month.
Questions? Comments? Leave them below and I’ll get back to you.
Tabitha Low 
You must be logged in to post a comment.